Optical communication systems may include photonics components that may exhibit unwanted changes in operating parameters with changes in temperature. Therefore, optical communication systems may utilize heating devices, cooling devices, or both to stabilize the temperature of the photonics component. Some optical transceivers may include thermo-electric coolers (TEC) to regulate the local temperature of the photonics components, decoupling the local temperature of the photonics components from the ambient temperature around the optical transceiver. TECs are active devices (since they require electrical power and closed loop control) that rely on the Peltier effect in semiconductor p-n junctions to provide heating and cooling capabilities relative to ambient temperature. In addition to requiring power and active control, TECs may be costly and power inefficient devices. Temperature stabilization may also be accomplished by using a so-called “ovenized” approach to thermal stabilization, where the photonics components are heated so they are always at an elevated temperature relative to the ambient environment. This “ovenized” approach utilizes electrical power and closed loop control of the heaters.
Alternatively, optical transceivers may include uncooled photonics components, such as uncooled lasers. Uncooled lasers may include, for example, a directly modulated laser (DML) or an electro-absorption modulated laser (EML). Uncooled lasers may also be used in conjunction with a modulator capable of operating over a wide wavelength range, for example, a Mach-Zhender Modulator (MZM, fabricated in silicon or III-V material). These MZMs may have an operating point, for example, a modulator bias voltage, that may be adjusted through closed loop control in order to operate over the wavelength range of the laser. For uncooled lasers, the temperature of the laser is allowed to vary, which results in the wavelength of the laser varying. This may be acceptable for applications requiring only a few optical channels per fiber and where the large optical bandwidth of the transmission medium (e.g. optical fiber) can be utilized. An example is transceivers operating over the so-called Course Wavelength Division Multiplexing (CWDM) optical channel plan (20 nm channel spacing).